CursorFX is a utility which allows you to have much more flexibility in the cursors
you use to interact with Windows. CursorFX users can create and use cursors that
look and feel far superior to anything you've ever seen before! Best of all, it's
really easy to create your own super-charged cursors!

DesktopX is a program that lets users build their own desktops. It does this by
giving users access to desktop objects. These objects can come in all sizes and
shapes. They can have scripts attached to them, they can be combined together to
form mini applications or turned into an entire desktop.

Publisher:

Stardock Corporation

Developer:

Stardock Corporation

Stardock DeskScapes is a program that allows users to have animated wallpaper on
their Windows 8, Windows 7, XP or Vista desktop. It supports playing video as animated wallpaper,
dynamically generated content as animated wallpaper, and more.

IconPackager is a program that allows users to change nearly all of their Windows
icons at once by applying "packages" of icons. A package of icons contains
icons to replace most of the common icons on your Windows PC.

Icons

Icons for applications and folders.

LogonStudio is a free program that allows users to change their Windows 7, Vista
and XP logon screens. It comes with several logon screens to choose from, along
with thousands that are available online.

ObjectDock™ is a program that enables users to organize their shortcuts, programs
and running tasks into an attractive and fun animated Dock. By allowing users to
have more control over how they organize their desktop, users can take control of
their desktop icons and shortcuts to have them be available when where and how they
need them.

ObjectDock™ is a program that enables users to organize their shortcuts, programs
and running tasks into an attractive and fun animated Dock. By allowing users to
have more control over how they organize their desktop, users can take control of
their desktop icons and shortcuts to have them be available when where and how they
need them.

Show off your favorite desktop configuration by uploading a screenshot of your desktop!

SoundPackager brings customization of your auditory experience to Object Desktop!
Users can now choose from "sound packages" to enhance their Windows desktop
experience. Over 30 different system sounds are supported; unique new Stardock Design
sound packages are included with the package.

Microsoft Windows® 8 is shipped without the "Start" menu. Stardock heard the cries from Windows 8
users. We put the "Start" menu back in Windows 8. We accurately recreated the most used desktop
feature billions of users depend on every day and packed it with additional functionality.

Microsoft Windows® 8 is shipped without the "Start" menu. Stardock heard the cries from Windows 8
users. We put the "Start" menu back in Windows 8. We accurately recreated the most used desktop
feature billions of users depend on every day and packed it with additional functionality.

Theme Manager is a program that changes the look and feel of the entire Windows
environment. It works by talking to existing desktop enhancement programs and then
applying a MyColors or Suite file. In short, Theme Manager is a front-end to other
desktop enhancement programs to simplify the user experience.

WindowBlinds changes the look and feel of your Windows desktop by applying visual
styles to your entire Windows environment. When a visual style is applied, they
change nearly every elements of the Windows GUI such as title bars, push buttons,
the Start bar, menu and more.

View Gallery List

View a list of all of the different galleries available in WinCustomize, which you
can then browse individually.

Explore All

Explore all available galleries on WinCustomize.

Customize This Menu

This option is only available for subscribers of WinCustomize. If you are a subscriber
it will allow you to select which categories you would like to see in this menu
from a list of all galleries available on the site. This information will be stored
on your account for all your future visits.

Find the skins more easily!

WinCustomize gets an incredible amount of visitors each month, and a great many of them are new or first time users along with the regular community members. Now whether you are a new member or a long time member, navigating through the galleries of WinCustomize might not be fully known by our users.

With that being said, I wanted to give an overview on how to navigate the galleries here on WinCustomize. We have a wide range of galleries from wallpapers, cursors, WindowBlinds skins, and much more. We also have categories for these galleries that can make finding what you are looking for a bit easier, but not everyone is aware of how to do this.

Gallery Navigation

Clicking the Gallery button in the main navigation header will take you to the gallery page. Obviously, you can go directly to your gallery of choice by clicking the specific gallery on right, but we will get started in the main gallery page to show off some of its features.

Main Gallery Page

At the top of this page we have more links to common pages like cursors, visual styles, etc. Below that we have some other sections where users can get a better view of certain skins.

Newest: This section will show the latest skins submitted to the public gallery. A preview is shown of the latest six skins, and clicking the newest skins link will take you to a full gallery page showing the latest skins.

Most Popular Skins: Here you will find the most popular skins by downloads. At the top of this page you can sort by specific library, and from the last 30 days, the "hall of fame" or from yesterdays count.

Recently Featured: Skins are often featured on the front page of WinCustomize. This section allows you to sort through the skins that have been featured.

Top Skinners: Clicking here will show you the top skinners in various categories, and you can select different viewing options from the menu at the top.

Top Master Skins: Master Skinners on WinCustomize can sell their skins. This section shows off some of the most popular Master skins.

Most Popular skins

Navigating through Categories

One library that this will be very useful for is the ObjectDock gallery, so I will use this as the example, but the other galleries function the same way. Under the main site navigation you will see the breadcrumb links. You will see these in all the galleries on WinCustomize.

Category links

Next to each text link you will notice the arrow buttons. Clicking one of these will open a menu allowing your a variety of sub-category choices depending on which you click. Lets say you are looking in the ObjectDock gallery, and want to find a nice set of tabbed dock backgrounds for ObjectDock Plus. Clicking the arrow next to "ObjectDock" will give me the menu seen below.

Sub-categories

By selecting the "Tabbed Backgrounds" link, it will filter the gallery to show only tabbed backgrounds.

Filtered gallery results

You don't have to stop there either. You can filter it even more with settings like amount of downloads, newest, ratings, etc.

Even more filters

Sorting Galleries

So we have gone through how to navigate through the different sub-categories in the gallery sections, and now we will cover just sorting through the galleries. By default, when you enter any of the galleries on WinCustomize you will see the skins in order of the newest first. This is great, but clicking the drop-down menu above the gallery will give you more sorting choices.

You can sort the galleries by:

Downloads Overall

Downloads Today

Featured Skins

Last Updated

Newest Skins

Skin Name

Skin Rating

Gallery sorting options

WindowBlinds Advanced Filters

With the addition of WindowBlinds 6 and Windows Vista skinning, the WindowBlinds gallery has an added filter that will show WB skins that are WindowBlinds 6 ready, Vista ready, or both. Clicking one of these three links will filter the galleries appropriately.

WindowBlinds gallery filters

You can also know which WindowBlinds skins are WB6 or Vista ready by looking for the icons as seen below.

Edit Displayed Libraries

On the right side navigation of WinCustomize, you will see links to some of the various galleries. By clicking "edit" you can easily add or remove galleries from that list so you can see only the galleries you are interested in.

Changing displayed libraries

Simply select or deselect the check buttons for the gallery you want to change.

Conclusion

Hopefully this guide will help you navigate through WinCustomize more easily, and help you find the skins you are looking for. If you still have questions or suggestions, please feel free to visit the forums. More guides on other parts of WinCustomize will also be available soon.

( I wonder if there is a way to packages some of your WC articles in an email when a user subscribes? that could be a huge help.)

I agree with Zubaz. I'm fairly new here. I eventually discovered these tips on my own. It would have greatly enhanced my browsing experience from the very beginning if an article such as this had been available.
Thanks again, Island Dog, for an excellent, well-written and helpful article!

Why not have a page that the freshly signed up user is shown with something to the effect of 'Now you've signed up, here's how to get started' with links to these types of articles .. along with the wiki of course.

Why not have a page that the freshly signed up user is shown with something to the effect of 'Now you've signed up, here's how to get started' with links to these types of articles .. along with the wiki of course.

I have been having a problem with the 'WindowBlinds 6 ready, Vista ready, or both' filters.

The filters work when I first click on them but as soon as I try to navigate to the next gallery page the filters no longer apply and the page refreshes so I get thrown back to the 300 odd pages of skins again. Basically I can only ever see the first of the filtered gallery pages making the option useless.

Another thing I would like to see is Vista ready sorting for the IconPackager galleries.